Alabama Football: Breaking Down What Happens If Arkansas Beats LSU

On second thought, perhaps so much dust was kicked up that it will never truly settle, not even after the last piece of confetti drops in New Orleans.

Despite the confusion. here is the current BCS Top 10:

Team

BCS Average

1

LSU

.9933

2

Oklahoma State

.9642

3

Alabama

.9099

4

Oregon

.8755

5

Oklahoma

.8400

6

Arkansas

.7974

7

Clemson

.6935

8

Virginia Tech

.6755

9

Stanford

.6747

10

Boise State

.5959

At this point it feels most of the focus is on the Bedlam contest between Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. Obviously, it would be huge if Oklahoma State were to lose that contest and open up a slot for one of the one-loss teams.

Before we start talking about national championship rematch scenarios, let us look at the potential mess in the Southeastern Conference.

What happens in the SEC West if Arkansas is able to upset LSU in Baton Rouge on Nov. 25?

A Razorback victory would provide us with a three-way tie in the division between Alabama, Arkansas and LSU.

While that final game in Stillwater is called Bedlam, we’ll actually be experiencing it in the SEC West standings.

Alabama throttled Arkansas 38-14 back in September. LSU took down Alabama 9-6 on Nov. 5.

If Arkansas defeats LSU, how would the rankings fall out a week prior to the monster showdown in Stillwater?

The Cowboys would move to No. 1, but how would you rank the SEC West trio?

You need to put Arkansas ahead of LSU and behind Alabama, but how do you drop LSU underneath the Crimson Tide?

According to the SEC, if there is a three-way tie, the tied team with the highest BCS ranking following the last weekend of regular season games will head to Atlanta, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five spaces of the highest-ranked tied team.

In this case, we take the head-to-head results of the two highest ranked teams.

Basically, if the Razorbacks pull off the upset in Baton Rouge, it is highly likely all three teams will finish 11-1 and ranked within five spots of each other.

We can boil that down even further as it will only matter who the top two teams are in those rankings.

If it’s Alabama and Arkansas, Alabama heads to Atlanta. If it’s Alabama and LSU, the Tigers play for the crown. If it’s LSU and Arkansas, the Razorbacks get to go.

Is all of that clear?

Here we are in the middle of November and the college football landscape is as murky as it has ever been.

This is all ruling out the potential upsets out there like Auburn over Alabama or Mississippi State over Arkansas.

The only thing we do know is that there is a lot of football left to play before we settle who gets to go anywhere.